Cases included murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, rape and other crimes against women

ADR has analysed the affidavits of 822 out of 851 candidates in fray for as many as 93 Vidhan Sabha seats.

In a startling revelation, 101 candidates contesting Gujarat Assembly Elections in 2nd phase have declared criminal cases against themselves. Out of these 101, 64 have declared serious criminal cases, including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, rape and other crimes against women, a report by the NGO ADR has said. The agency has analysed the affidavits of 822 out of 851 candidates in fray for as many as 93 Vidhan Sabha seats. As per the report, 21 per cent of the Congress candidates and 15 per cent of the BJP nominees for the second phase of the Gujarat assembly polls have declared “serious criminal cases against themselves”.

The agency could not analyse the affidavits of the rest 29 candidates as these were “either badly scanned or the complete affidavits were not available on the ECI website. Among the major parties, 13 out of 86 candidates from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); 18 out of 88 candidates from the Indian National Congress (INC) and 2 (3 per cent) out of 74 candidates from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

In NCP, three (11 per cent) out of 27 candidates from NCP have cases against them; while in AAP, 14 per cent out of seven candidates from AAP. Among the 344 Independent candidates, 14 have declared “serious criminal cases against themselves” in their affidavits.

Also, there are 12 such constituencies where “three or more candidates” are in the fray who have declared criminal cases.

Two MLA hopefuls have declared cases related to rape (IPC section 376), while two have declared case related to assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty (IPC section 354).

Earlier, ADR had analysed affidavits of candidates for first phase of elections in terms of wealth. As an outcome, 198 nominees, belonging to different political parties as well as independents, were found to be the ‘crorepatis’. Among these 198 candidates, 65 have declared assets worth over Rs 5 crore, while 60 others have shown movable and immovable assets in the range of Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore.

The report says that ruling BJP has given tickets to 76 ‘crorepati’ candidates. On the other hand, Congress has fielded 60 such nominees. They are followed by seven from the NCP, six from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and two from the BSP. 25 independent candidates also came in this category.